Looks like I can get
Cyan complete pack for the same price as Real Myst. As someone who has never played a Myst game, are they still playable by today's standards?
Yes hello Myst fan here let me give the quick rundown:
Myst: Classic but incredibly dated graphics. Gameplay still holds up if you're into games about exploring and discovering the world you're in, but the puzzles aren't as strong these days as when it first came out.
Realmyst: Same gameplay as Myst but with a 3D world you can walk around freely instead of leaping between nodes. I'd say skip the original and just play this, or even better the Masterpiece Edition which has more modern graphics (but isn't included with the bundle).
Riven: Some say it's the peak of the Myst series. The graphics while still 2D node-based are much improved from Myst and still hold up today in my opinion, while the puzzles are also much better and the "sense of discovery" is in full effect.
Uru: Here things get interesting, Uru made the leap to a full 3D world and was intended to be this epic Myst MMO. Unfortunately that didn't quite pan out. These days Uru is actually open source with a few shards (multiplayer servers) including an official Cyan one, so you don't even need to buy the game to play that side of it. Complete Chronicles is the singleplayer component and while it includes a few differences to the open source multiplayer game, I'd really recommend just skipping Complete Chronicles and looking into the open source client. Regardless of that mess, I really do enjoy Uru. I think it offers great exploration and discovery and while the puzzles aren't up to Riven or Revelation standards, it's still fun and having your own personal age (Relto) that you can customize by finding pages scattered through the ages gives it a personal feeling none of the other games have. Also you get to explore part of the D'ni cavern which is awesome if you're into the lore.
Myst V: It's... Different. Some might say not in a good way. Myst V was thrown together from the scraps of plans for Uru after the multiplayer component was (repeatedly) cancelled and it shows. There are some real interesting parts to the game (including a rather fantastic SPACE age) but in the end it feels disjointed and somehow almost... Sterile? When compared to the other games. Certainly playable, but not up to snuff.
Not included in the bundle are Myst 3 and 4 (Exile and Revelations) as they weren't made by Cyan. While Exile is debatable (its structure results in it losing a ton of the exploration and discovery of the previous titles) Revelations is really a shame to miss out on and I'd recommend you look for it separately if you enjoy the other games. It's the peak of the traditional 2D node-based graphics which some downright amazing world design and almost unfairly difficult puzzles in spots. While not made by Cyan, it'd be easy to think it was.